IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2023i14p6355-d1192827.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beside the Seaside: Reflections on Local Green and Blue Spaces from Adults Aged over 50 in a Coastal Community

Author

Listed:
  • Ursula Pool

    (Healthy and Sustainable Settings Unit, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE, UK)

  • Anna Kenyon

    (School of Medicine, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE, UK)

  • Lynn Froggett

    (School of Social Work, Care and Community, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE, UK)

  • Mark Dooris

    (Healthy and Sustainable Settings Unit, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE, UK)

Abstract

This qualitative study examined the perceptions of potential wellbeing benefits of local green and blue spaces for adults aged over 50 years in a coastal town in North West England. At a population level, living close to green and blue spaces is associated with better mental and physical health, with the strength of the benefits being inversely related to the economic prosperity of an area. However, living in economically disadvantaged coastal communities may be associated with poorer health and wellbeing, particularly for older adults, despite the proximity to blue (and often green) space. Exploring this apparent paradox was the aim of the present study. Through semi-structured interviews with members of a community group, we gained insight into lived experiences of local green and blue spaces. The main themes we developed from analysis of the conversations were accessibility, amenities, social connections, quality of environment, and recuperation and escape. Our findings illustrate that participants valued natural spaces that were local and accessible, particularly when they felt connected to them, and were less likely to visit spaces that were further away and that were perceived as being less welcoming or accessible. This study provides insights into the experiences of adults aged over 50 living in coastal areas and suggests that policies and interventions aimed at promoting wellbeing in this demographic should consider the value of hyper-local green and blue spaces and their potential to promote connectedness to nature.

Suggested Citation

  • Ursula Pool & Anna Kenyon & Lynn Froggett & Mark Dooris, 2023. "Beside the Seaside: Reflections on Local Green and Blue Spaces from Adults Aged over 50 in a Coastal Community," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(14), pages 1-13, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:14:p:6355-:d:1192827
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/14/6355/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/14/6355/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Elena Plans & Pedro Gullón & Alba Cebrecos & Mario Fontán & Julia Díez & Mark Nieuwenhuijsen & Manuel Franco, 2019. "Density of Green Spaces and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in the City of Madrid: The Heart Healthy Hoods Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Yijun Zhang & Suzanne Mavoa & Jinfeng Zhao & Deborah Raphael & Melody Smith, 2020. "The Association between Green Space and Adolescents’ Mental Well-Being: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-26, September.
    3. Alessandro Rigolon & Matthew H. E. M. Browning & Olivia McAnirlin & Hyunseo (Violet) Yoon, 2021. "Green Space and Health Equity: A Systematic Review on the Potential of Green Space to Reduce Health Disparities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(5), pages 1-27, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stanhope, Jessica & Foley, Kristen & Butler, Mary & Boddy, Jennifer & Clanchy, Kelly & George, Emma & Roberts, Rachel & Rothmore, A/Prof Paul & Salter, Amy & Serocki, Patricia, 2024. "“A variety of green spaces available to all”: knowledge of patient and community needs in natural spaces as understood by allied health professionals," SocArXiv nv95r, Center for Open Science.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yuhong Tian & Fenghua Liu & Chi Yung Jim & Tiantian Wang & Jingya Luan & Mengxuan Yan, 2022. "Effects of Self-Rated Health Status on Residents’ Social-Benefit Perceptions of Urban Green Space," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-19, August.
    2. Lisa Dandolo & Christina Hartig & Klaus Telkmann & Sophie Horstmann & Lars Schwettmann & Peter Selsam & Alexandra Schneider & Gabriele Bolte & on behalf of the INGER Study Group, 2022. "Decision Tree Analyses to Explore the Relevance of Multiple Sex/Gender Dimensions for the Exposure to Green Spaces: Results from the KORA INGER Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-25, June.
    3. Megan Rowley & Raluca Topciu & Matthew Owens, 2022. "A Systematic Review of Mechanisms Underpinning Psychological Change Following Nature Exposure in an Adolescent Population," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-22, October.
    4. Amber L. Pearson & Catherine D. Brown & Aaron Reuben & Natalie Nicholls & Karin A. Pfeiffer & Kimberly A. Clevenger, 2023. "Elementary Classroom Views of Nature Are Associated with Lower Child Externalizing Behavior Problems," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(9), pages 1-14, April.
    5. Lisa Dandolo & Klaus Telkmann & Christina Hartig & Sophie Horstmann & Sara Pedron & Lars Schwettmann & Peter Selsam & Alexandra Schneider & Gabriele Bolte & on behalf of the INGER Study Group, 2023. "Do Multiple Sex/Gender Dimensions Play a Role in the Association of Green Space and Self-Rated Health? Model-Based Recursive Partitioning Results from the KORA INGER Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(7), pages 1-23, March.
    6. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks & Viniece Jennings & Alessandro Rigolon, 2021. "Green Gentrification and Health: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(3), pages 1-23, January.
    7. Khaled Ali Abuhasel, 2023. "Assessing Public Service Distribution in Abha and Bisha Cities, Saudi Arabia: A Comparative Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-15, June.
    8. Alessandro Rigolon & Timothy Collins, 2023. "The green gentrification cycle," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(4), pages 770-785, March.
    9. Haili Zhao & Minghui Wu & Yuhan Du & Fang Zhang & Jialiang Li, 2022. "Relationship between Built-Up Environment, Air Pollution, Activity Frequency and Prevalence of Hypertension—An Empirical Analysis from the Main City of Lanzhou," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-19, December.
    10. Mariana Cernicova-Buca & Vasile Gherheș & Ciprian Obrad, 2023. "Residents’ Satisfaction with Green Spaces and Daily Life in Small Urban Settings: Romanian Perspectives," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-19, March.
    11. Da Mao & Huijie Yang & Shaohua Zhang & Haozhe Sun & Xiaojuan Wang, 2024. "Adaptive Behavioral Dynamics in Public Open Spaces During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Technological Perspective on Urban Resilience," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(3), pages 12651-12677, September.
    12. Ferdinando Fornara & Elena Rinallo & Massimiliano Scopelliti, 2023. "Contact with Nature in Social Deprivation during COVID-19: The Positive Impact on Anxiety," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(14), pages 1-14, July.
    13. Derrien, Monika M. & Bratman, Gregory N. & Cerveny, Lee K. & Levy, Chaja & Blahna, Dale J. & Frank, Paulo & Serio, Naomi, 2024. "Public nature and health for homeless populations: Professionals’ perceptions of contingent human benefits and harms," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 347(C).
    14. Martine Shareck & Eliana Aubé & Stephanie Sersli, 2023. "Neighborhood Physical and Social Environments and Social Inequalities in Health in Older Adolescents and Young Adults: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(8), pages 1-20, April.
    15. Kun Wang & Zhihao Sun & Meng Cai & Lingbo Liu & Hao Wu & Zhenghong Peng, 2022. "Impacts of Urban Blue-Green Space on Residents’ Health: A Bibliometric Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-21, December.
    16. Sadler, Richard C. & Wojciechowski, Thomas W. & Buchalski, Zachary & Smart, Mieka & Mulheron, Megan & Todem, David, 2022. "Validating a geospatial healthfulness index with self-reported chronic disease and health outcomes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    17. Joy L. Hart & Ray A. Yeager & Daniel W. Riggs & Daniel Fleischer & Ugochukwu Owolabi & Kandi L. Walker & Aruni Bhatnagar & Rachel J. Keith, 2022. "The Relationship between Perceptions and Objective Measures of Greenness," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-17, December.
    18. Dong Liu & Mei-Po Kwan & Zihan Kan & Jianying Wang, 2022. "Toward a Healthy Urban Living Environment: Assessing 15-Minute Green-Blue Space Accessibility," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-12, December.
    19. Paolo Contiero & Giovanna Tagliabue & Andrea Tittarelli & Martina Bertoldi & Claudio Tresoldi & Giulio Barigelletti & Viviana Perotti & Vittoria Balbo & Stefania Rizzieri & Marco D’Orazi & Valerio Gen, 2021. "Municipality Data as a Rapid and Effective Tool to Analyse Spatial and Temporal Variations of All-Cause Mortality by Town District: The Experience in Genoa (Italy)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-11, August.
    20. Ao Wang & Ziran Meng & Bing Zhao & Fan Zhang, 2024. "Using Social Media Data to Research the Impact of Campus Green Spaces on Students’ Emotions: A Case Study of Nanjing Campuses," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-16, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:14:p:6355-:d:1192827. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.